The continuous casting process of the present invention is sometimes referred to as inversion casting, because solidification takes places from the inside of the strip to the outside, rather than from the outside to the inside as in standard continuous casting.
Such a process is known for producing wire, in particular, but also for casting strips. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,264,692 discloses a casting vessel with a zircon brick floor for a strip casting process. The slit-shaped opening in the floor brick is matched with narrow tolerances to the dimensions of the strip drawn through it.
A disadvantage of this known floor inlet is the relatively high risk that the strip will jam if its measurements deviate even slightly from the permitted size or its course is rough and therefore accompanied by increased friction.
From WO-A-87 07 102, a device for producing thin metal strands is known that has a vessel equipped with a refractory-grade lining, in whose floor an opening is provided for inserting a metal strip, the opening being embodied as a slit-shaped channel. To obtain a large total thickness of the strip, the strip can be drawn through the melt in several cycles.
Another device for producing thin metal strips is known from DE-A-36 38 249. Here, a certain distance is maintained between the channel wall and the strip to be coated.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,264,692 should be mentioned. In the device described there, a certain material is used for the inlet channel. This is done to prevent an expansion of the material from causing the metal strip to become stuck in the channel.
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,479,530, a process is known for passing wire through a melt-in this case, however, from top to floor-and then running the wire through the floor outlet of a melt vessel. In this process, which is designed to produce copper wire, it is proposed to embody the floor outlet in conical fashion, and also to deliberately allow melt to emerge from the outlet along with wire.
A similar device, again for producing wire, is known from the article "A Continuous Casting Process" in the Journal of Metals, October 1963, pp. 774-780. This article describes a floor opening that is made of molybdenum and can be cooled by water.
The two latter documents relate to the production of wire from copper and are not transferable to processes and devices for the production of steel strip. It should be noted that in wire production, the diameter of the wire is irregular, due to bulges in the crystallized layer. The wire must therefore be further processed to be of practical use. It is also disadvantageous that low crystallization and poor bonding often result from the large size of the mother wire, which can be 6 mm thick or larger.